Title

The Current Situation in Poland

Friday, September 23, 1988
10:00am
562 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
United States
Official Transcript: 
PDF icon Official Transcript - The Current Situation in Poland.pdf
Members: 
Name: 
Hon. Steny H. Hoyer
Title Text: 
Chairman
Body: 
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Name: 
Hon. Chris Smith
Title Text: 
Commissioner
Body: 
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Name: 
Hon. Don Ritter
Title Text: 
Commissioner
Body: 
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Name: 
Hon. Edward Feighan
Title Text: 
Commissioner
Body: 
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Name: 
Hon. Frank Lautenberg
Title Text: 
Commissioner
Body: 
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Witnesses: 
Name: 
Professor Jan Nowak
Body: 
Polish American Conference
Name: 
Professor Janusz Onyszkiewicz
Title: 
Official Spokesman
Body: 
Polish American Trade Union, Solidarity
Name: 
Father Eugene Koch
Title: 
Head of the Campus Ministry
Body: 
Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ

This hearing, presided over by the Hon. Steny Hoyer, was necessitated by strikes having erupted throughout Poland in the largest wave of worker unrest since 1981. These strikes happened shortly after Hoyer visited the country in April of 1988. In September of that year, after another series of strikes, the Polish leadership and opposition both agreed to hold round table discussions on the long-standing problems facing Poland. At the time of the hearing, Poland had been presented with a new and viable opportunity to reconciliation between the leadership and the opposition.

The hearing examined the obstacles that barred the path to normalization in Poland, the conditions that needed to be established to ensure the success of necessary reforms, and the oppositions the Polish government and the opposition faced as Poland entered the phase of development in question.
 

Relevant issues: 
Citizenship and Political Rights
Relevant countries: 
Poland
Leadership: 
Christopher Smith
Steny Hoyer
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